Shade Morgan is your quintessential professional, with experience in legal and corporate communication competences across various sectors that look quite intimidating – enough to form a book. Her hands on experience in law and business management in legal and corporate environments give her a pedigree that stands her out as an achiever, by any standard. Call her an all-rounder, and you won’t be wrong.
Quite interestingly apart from the period Morgan spent practising what she actually studied, which is law, she has spent the greater part of her working life in one industry in the private sector, namely, the food, beverage and tobacco sub-sector of the consumer goods industry. She has promoted smoking; promoted consumption of non-alcoholic beverage, and now, she is promoting consumption of alcoholic beverage, specifically, beer.
Morgan joined Nigerian Breweries Plc (a member of Heineken BV Group) in December, 2018 equipped with about 26 years cognate experience in legal practice handling high profile corporate cases, as well corporate management in a multinational blue chip organization. As a member of the Executive Management, she occupies a position that enables her to strengthen the company’s non-crisis stakeholder relations and drive a strategy-led relationship with governments, regulatory organizations, host communities, the media and non-governmental organizations to reinforce the company’s Winning with Nigeria philosophy
She began her career in legal practice in 1993, working with two leading Nigerian law firms of Dentons ACAS, as well as Aluko and Oybode. In the course of her legal career, she worked across several industries and markets in Africa, Middle East, the United Kingdom, as well as other parts of Europe.
Some of her achievements while in legal practice include restructuring of an over $30 million state owned cement manufacturing company and its subsidiaries in Nigeria, which was acquired by a client who was a foreign investor; advising on regulatory requirements for foreign investment and counseling on commercial transactions, company formations, due diligence issues and statutory as well as compliance issues.
She was a member of a multi-specialist legal team, counselling businesses on strategies for protection, enforcement and leveraging of company’s IP assets. She supported functional units on general legal matters, and ensured statutory and regulatory compliance in company operations, effectively managing external counsel to ensure maximum return for expenditure.
Morgan joined the British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2003, where she worked for over 11 years in various management positions across different jurisdictions. In 2006, she was seconded to BAT Middle East and North Africa, an assignment that enabled her to share responsibilities with the Executive Committee for the strategic management of the business unit of the Gulf Corporation Council.
She was appointed Legal Director and member of the Leadership Team of BAT in 2008. In that capacity, she drove the regulatory and legal risk management agenda for the 26 West Africa area markets of the business unit.
Morgan was assigned to the United Kingdom headquarters of BAT in 2013, with regulatory and marketing counselling and engagement oversight of BAT Group’s 86 Eastern Europe, Middle East and African region country markets. This followed her impressive performance and diverse operating company experience.
She left the services of the tobacco company to join the Nigerian Bottling Company, a member of the Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company Group, in2014, at the position of Public Affairs and Communications Director. While with the leading global non-alcoholic beverage brand, she recorded significant achievements that include successful driving of stakeholder management, business sustainability and the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility agenda.
Morgan has been able to bring her wealth of experience in stakeholder engagement, expertise in management of diverse publics, as well as corporate communications to bear on her job of corporate affairs director at Nigeria’s foremost beer manufacturer. This has enabled the company to remain at the top end of the market, despite the entry of some of the world’s leading brands into the country’s beer market.
A law graduate from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Morgan is a Prince II Certified Project Manager in Executive Management from the Institute of Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland. She has also attended HIMAC, an Executive Business and Leadership Programme, as well as numerous executive management programmes within and outside the country.
She is a member of the Institute of Directors, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and Chairman of the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance Nigeria.
